I remember seeing a piece somewhere about synthetic white spinel crystals being sold as rough diamonds. They even displayed trigons but were inverted from diamond trigons -- the quick way to ID them. They have the "benefit" of being SR.

The diamond tester (thermalconductivity meter) is your friend. I know of a case where a novice buyer purchased some Topaz that looked like diamond crystals. It was not fun breaking the bad news to this guy. Early in my career, a businessman who traveled frequently to Africa showed me what looked like a diamond crystal, but was in fact a piece of polycarbonate plastic shaped to look like a diamond crystal.

Scarodactyl. When I come across them again I'll try to get some for you. normally the guys selling them are reluctant to part with them as they are attempting to sell them off as the real thing. There are many in Taung South Africa. Haven't been that way in a long time. should make a trip to there in the next few months.

Thanks, that would be awesome! Yeah, I can see how they would be hard to come by (unless you're paying diamond prices, in which case they'd be all too easy to come by), but it would be a fun thing to add to my collection.

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